Journey to the East
by SabletKnight
Summary: Set right after the discovery of Dust, Ren, an apprentice huntsman, is left stranded in Vacuo following an attack on his family's caravan. Far away from home, he must travel across Remnant in order to find the source of the rising cult and stop them from wiping out his people completely. An AU featuring Team JNPR, with some romance. All property belongs to Rooster Teeth.


He flew.

He flew straight through the stained-glass window without grace or hesitation, throwing his aching body against the pane with all his might until he tumbled out into the open air. The glass panes had thankfully been weakened by the rising flames, and gave without much resistance, but the shower of shards that followed tore at his robes and cut into his dwindling aura. The colorful shards glinted in the shattered moon's light like stardust, twinkling against the blackness of strange part of his brain that wasn't screaming in fear and pain though it was entrancing, as if he was flying into the sky rather than plummeting to the swirling waters below.

Lord Spera's castle was burning, the stone walls and windows marred by the rising flames from within. The building would survive, as the flames would never be strong enough to consume those once pristine sand-stone walls. _Those inside are a different story._ The only sounds he could hear against the winds tearing into his bones was the crackling embers and distant screams of those trapped inside, but he could still see his pursuers in the window.

Their dark cloaks stood out against the backdrop of the inferno beyond the broken glasswork, but it was their masks they drew his eyes. Bleached white masks and ruby eyes made in mockery of those of the Grimm followed his body through the air, the red lines sprawling across each face smeared by flecks of blood and grime. One by one they turned around, no doubt certain the waters below would finish the job they could not. Even if he survived, he would be in no condition to fight. He could only clench at his father's dagger as the anger and guilt and sadness and rage stewed within him. When…IF they found him, whatever aura he had left would be dedicated to slitting the first cultists throat the moment they came into reach.

The ocean was upon him, and his time was up. He hit the water feet first and something broke. Pain shot through his body before all feeling was lost to the freezing waters. The waves carried him under, pulling him into murky depths. His lungs tightened and shrunk, screeching for air and tired arms feverishly grasped for something, anything, to save him from the unseen hands pulling him down. One by one, the stars overhead dimmed from view, until even the moon's light could not reach him. All he saw was darkness. All he felt was cold.

 _I am sorry mother. It seems neither of us are going home._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

There were murmurs at first, small whispers that faded into noise and then silence. The smells hit him next, the scents of fire and salt tickling his nose, as far off waves crashed into the shore. His addled mind recoiled, awoken by echoes of the attack.

 _BoNeS…BLOod…FIRE…PaiN -sO mUCh-…Glass, I jumped…water. The water was cold. Too cold. He's too cold…father. "FATHER!"_

The boy was awake, woken up by the trembling in his throat as his shouted against the world, tears in his eye. His chest heaved with emotion, the memories throwing his mind in disarray as he struggled to remember what went wrong. It was only after small hands wrapped around him and shocked him into silence did he notice the other presence in the room.

"Sshh…It's okay. You're safe here. Nothing's here to hurt you…"

The voice was feminine, slow but caring. A woman, no, a girl was holding him steady in a firm hug. He felt pain stretch across his torso where small cuts protested the force of her hold, but only for the moment. She was smaller than him, his head barely resting on her shoulders as arms barely reaching one another behind his back, but she was warm. The memories of freezing waters faded as he took in his surrounds, of the crackling fire by his side and the orange hair tickling his nose. He slowly tapped a hand on her back, and she gently pulled away.

"Hi, I'm Nora. Nora Valkyrie."

"Ren. Lie Ren"

 _ **Hello readers, this here is the first in what I hope is many chapter of my new story, Journey to the East. I figured that there aren't a lot of stories that focus on Ren and Nora as characters outside of romance. I like how the two fit together, but I kind of wanted development for the two outside of "one's quiet, the other's loud, and they like (possibly like-like) each other". I plan to have them travel across Remnant, running into Jaune and Pyrrha along the way, in search of Ren's family. A bit of action, adventure, and maybe even romance, I hope you readers can enjoy this story as much as I do writing it. I still need a beta, but I am working on this story in between school and work, so no rush and don't expect frequent updates.**_


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